Bruises on the Fruit
by GlamorizedLevis
Summary: Snapshots of a married man, a sixteen year old girl, and a twisted romance that reduces everything it touches to ashes.
1. Chapter 1

_**AN:**_ _Thanks much to my beta, electric gurrl, and her input to make a story that is inspired by her fic_ _Spring Fever_ _. This is dark, but there isn't any abuse and everything is consensual (well, I mean, illegal, but still). It takes place in a Modern AU and while the first drabble is in medias res, the rest are all in chronological order. There will be 100 of them. Thanks for clicking and I hope you enjoy!_

* * *

 _ **Bruises on the Fruit**_

 _#_

 _We can have some more_  
 _Nature is a whore_  
 _Bruises on the fruit_  
 _Tender age in bloom  
"In Bloom," Nirvana  
_

* * *

 _prologue: perfume_

Mai wears that expensive perfume she hates when she goes to sleep over at her best friend's house. She doesn't want to smell cheap and like a child. She doesn't want to shatter the image of herself as some kind of dark temptress.

She doesn't necessarily want to please him. She just wants to watch such a powerful man tremble from her touch, to have that kind of control that her life lacks.

Mai never has had power before.

That night in the kitchen with her back aching against a counter and her legs wrapped around him, he tells her she smells beautiful.

She doesn't care.

Or so she tells herself.

* * *

 _1: poolside_

He watches her when he should not. Ozai is expected to pretend that she is not there, in what amounts to sea-stained lingerie. She lurks in the shadows and avoids the water, avoids the sunlight. But they call to her from the pool, his daughter and her little friend that seems to be attached to her hip of late.

His work is more important, he knows. But the window overlooks the summer scene of young people who can do whatever they want and decide to have innocent water fights. He wonders just how innocent that very sullen girl could be.

It is completely inappropriate to watch her like that.

But, to be honest, he cares about as much as she does.

 _###_

 _2: window_

Mai undresses in front of her window. Her mother always snaps at her to not do that, but she has no idea why anyone would even want to look inside. Azula had a decent view from her window; they used to hold up signs at night to talk to each other from afar.

Aside from that, she never put much thought into it. Not even when she began to realize the uncomfortable spark between she and someone beyond forbidden.

She does it every night.

Who would watch? Would someone climb a damn tree?

No, but someone could absolutely accidentally look up from a laptop of overwhelming work and catch a glimpse of her carelessly discarding vital items of clothing.

###

 _3: tease_

Mai notices his attention, but she pretends that she doesn't.

She likes it. She likes it a good deal, and she likes to think that perhaps he has masturbated thinking about her. That's a good feeling, and Mai considers most feelings to be bad.

Mai notices his attention, but she pretends that she doesn't.

She likes to lead him on. She likes to lead him on a good deal, and she likes to think that perhaps he thinks she is interested in him. That's a good feeling, and Mai considers most feelings to be bad.

It only hurts when she realizes that she might want him too.

 _###_

 _4: party_

The tension bursts at a party.

Mai hates them. Azula hates them too, so the fact that her birthday is such a huge and rowdy celebration makes very little sense. Hell, Zuko despises them on a number of levels, and Ursa left town for the weekend to avoid it.

Azula always says she just throws them to keep people talking about her. To remind them that she is some kind of deity – as she believes she is – and Mai decides it is a decent explanation. Not the right one, Mai knows, but it is reasonable.

Mai doesn't really care enough to pry any further.

The pool is lit up with multiple colors coming from some sort of disco ball. Mai watches the slick boys and girls rub up against each other in the water. Guys look at her; she glares back at them until they stop ogling her.

Azula has copious attention but no social skills to not come off as an inept nerd or a certified psychopath. Thankfully, she has Ty Lee, when Ty Lee isn't making cute but sexually explicit comments to any boy who looks at her twice.

Mai observes. It tends to be boring, but she'd rather be watching than participating. She makes it scientific in her head. Narrates mating calls in her head to make this slightly more interesting than watching paint dry.

"Mai, Mai, Mai, Mai, Mai…!" Ty Lee continues that way for a decent, drunken amount of time.

It is a distraction. Mai unfortunately does not realize that until Azula is cackling over her drenched, half-drowned body in the pool.

Mai wishes that she didn't have any friends.

 _###_

 _5: mirror_

Mai walks inside seeking a towel and finds that the music is somehow louder in here. She cannot locate a towel for the life of her until, suddenly, someone hands her one.

"Thank you," she instinctively remarks, pushing herself to her feet and her eyes meet the only person she ever had a crush on. Still does, to be honest. Still does fantasize about him too often.

"You can go upstairs and change in my room. No one will be in there," he offers and Mai nods.

It is a kind offer, but Mai feels a fast jolt of electricity that makes her heart beat too fast. She walks up and wonders if she should have stayed longer. She wanted to stay longer. She goes inside of a room she has not spent much time in. It takes her a moment to sort herself out as she begins to peel the drenched black dress from her body.

"Will you help me with this?" Mai asks into the hallway. He has left, of course, but he is close enough to hear her. "I can't get it off."

Mai cannot believe she is doing this. This is reserved for daydreams during boring classes.

He will say no, of course, Mai is certain.

Until his hands are on her back, undoing the ties on her soaking sundress and letting it fall.

They both have their eyes fixated on the mirror in front of them.

Neither moves.

This is everything they dream of but never can have.

After taking a deep breath, Ozai says, "You should go find clothes."

"Yeah," Mai murmurs.

They do not look away from the mirror until she has wrapped the Hello Kitty towel around herself.

She vanishes into Azula's room; he vanishes into his office.

They pretend it never happened.


	2. Chapter 2

_###_

 _6: spying_

The buzzing of Mai's phone wakes her from her afternoon nap. She had just arrived at home, made coffee and then collapsed in her bed with her dark purple curtains drawn. Despite her comfort, she reaches out to her bedside table, fumbling in the dim light, and seizes her phone. When she looks at the screen, she sighs.

Ty Lee has yet again texted her about her crush on Azula.

 _"She's listening to 'Nights in White Satin' again."_

The pain of her only two friends harboring a mutual crush on each other agonizes Mai. They do not do anything about their feelings, and Mai does not care enough to intervene. She just tolerates them, like she tolerates all things.

Other people can handle prying into Azula and Ty Lee's lives. In their school, nothing stays secret. In their neighborhood, no one can keep secrets. The gossip itself makes Mai feel nauseated.

 _"You're being too creepy,"_ Mai manages to reply. Her fingers are numb.

She gets an answer in an instant.

 _"If you were in love, you'd watch them too. She's fascinating and perfect and you know that!"_

Mai does not know that, to tell the truth, and she does not reply to Ty Lee either.

She has too much on her mind now that she thinks about Ty Lee spying on her crush. Mai thinks about being naked in front of a mirror, and his eyes on her. They opened her and made her blood surge with a sensation that she had never felt.

It was _thrilling_ , and nothing thrills Mai. She wants to feel it again like a junkie wants another hit. Mai does not know, however, how to pursue the sexual interest of a married man in his forties who happens to be the father of her best friend.

Needless to say, the moment at the party haunts her every waking moment, and she cannot say a thing about it.

 _###_

 _7: sighing_

"You sigh a lot," Azula says in English class.

"I have a lot to sigh about," Mai replies.

Her life is crumbling around her at the moment, and she wishes she could escape. Of course, there is no denying that there is not a way out of her situation. All Mai can do is cope with the frustration until she can leave this city and find a place where she belongs.

Until then, she will be known as the girl who sighs a lot.

###

 _8: trying_

Mai has never wanted anyone to notice her before. She thought attention required effort and Mai does not like things that required effort. Fading into the background is always easier. Vanishing appeals to a girl who always wishes she were elsewhere.

Yet, she does seek one person's attention.

When she sleeps over at Azula's house, she cannot stop thinking about that Hello Kitty towel and that man. The thrill is so close to her and she wants to feel it. She does not even know why she has a crush on him; she has never had one in her life. He is the only exception.

Mai removes her bra and slips into shorts and a loose tank-top. She looks at herself in the mirrors of Azula's bedroom. She and Ty Lee are talking, and Mai knows she is unwanted the moment Ty Lee sets her hand on Azula's wrist, and Azula does not pull away.

"I'm going to get a Coke," Mai says, and neither of her friends pay her any mind.

She walks down the stairs and takes her time finding the drink. She needs him to walk into this kitchen and deliver that irresistible high. He might not be here; she will run out of both courage and excuses.

He does not see her once, even in the morning.

 _###_

 _9: lying_

Ozai will admit that he had no intention of going into that kitchen. He did not think about it until he sees her there, running her fingers over the marble countertops. Her breasts are completely visible through what she was wearing.

He enters casually with an excuse in mind if she asks.

"Do you need anything?" he inquires.

"I'm just getting a pop," Mai lies. Of course it is believable; she knows how to conceal and suppress any emotions or expressions.

It finally worked. Mai wonders why she is doing it in the first place, but there is no stopping that. The minute his eyes land on her she feels it again, pumping through her veins. Her fingers toy with the bottom of her shirt, but she does not have the courage to take it off.

He examines her and she pays close attention to how his eyes linger on her chest. Mai arcs her back as subtly as she can by placing her hand on the counter behind her. Her eyes lock with his and she thinks this might evolve into more than a silent observation.

Unfortunately, their eye contact breaks.

"I have to work," he says, which Mai considers to be a pathetic excuse.

Ozai leaves her there without a second thought, and it makes her want him more.

 _###_

 _10: flying_

"She kissed me!" Ty Lee exclaims in the empty school hallway. Mai was just trying to get her textbooks when Ty Lee flew at her. She throws her arms around Mai. Ty Lee shakes and trembles. "It felt like flying."

Mai sighs. She cannot believe that they are so _lucky in love_. It will be even more disgusting to be around them at this point.

"At least I don't have to hear about you analyzing her sentences and spying on her through her bedroom window," Mai says. Ty Lee ignores the insults.

"Oh, I'll still do both of those things." Ty Lee's wind chime giggle makes Mai want to smash her face against the locker until it bleeds, but she remains composed. "I can't believe we kissed!"

Three days later, things change.

"I can't believe she doesn't want to go out with me! We _kissed_!" Ty Lee wails, holding Mai tightly and adamantly refusing to release her. "Why would she do this?"

"Because she's cruel and selfish. She probably thought chasing you and toying with you was much more fun than having you," Mai offers. Ty Lee lets go and stands in front of her best friend. "You'll get over it."

"No I won't! There is no one else for me in this world!" Ty Lee cries.

She soars down the hallway and leaves Mai alone at her locker.

Mai looks at her face in the mirror and sees the winged eyeliner she experimented with today. It is very dark and mysterious, which is exactly what she was going for.

Perhaps her eyeliner wings are big enough to whisk her into the sky and away from her life.

 _###_


	3. Chapter 3

_###_

 _11: lust_

It takes being amoral and soulless to have Ozai's level of success. Yet, of all of the fucked up things he has done, this is one of the worst. He finds fantasizing about his daughter's best friend to be unsettling, even when he has always done whatever he pleased, and saw no consequences.

He pretends to try to stop himself, but she does not make it easy.

It's fucked up to want her, but he still does, and he _always_ gets what he wants.

That realization is when fantasies become plans. They are nothing concrete, but they are much more realistic than secret scenarios. The problem is the numerous barriers preventing him from executing said plans and seizing what he desires.

So, when he glances at her following his daughter home, he cannot help but think of a thousand ways to have her.

It cannot be impossible for someone as powerful as he.

 _###_

 _12: torture_

"The _Saw_ movies are not a genre of pornography," Azula says to Mai.

She, Azula and Ty Lee are at lunch, sitting inside of a piano room instead of the bustling cafeteria. They enjoy their solitude and liberty. Or, at least, Azula says they have to eat here and so they do (the likeliest reason).

Mai sits on a piano bench and sneezes occasionally from the dust. She has no interest in her food, but an interest in how uncomfortable discussing sex with Azula has become. No one knows about Ozai but she feels paranoid that someone does. She feels sick when Azula asks her questions that once would not have bothered her.

Grosser yet, Ty Lee has set her legs on Azula's lap.

Those two girls haven't even kissed or grinded against each other at a school dance (which they both want to do). The tension between them could burn down the damned school, and the tension headache their pining gives Mai could kill a dragon.

"You asked me what kind of porn I was into," Mai says, sighing. "Torture porn is a genre."

"It is a genre of _horror movies_ ," Azula corrects, "not pornography."

"Stop saying pornography!" Ty Lee exclaims shrilly. "Were you born in the 1880's or something?"

Instantly, Ty Lee regrets it. Azula gives her a look that makes her turn her gaze to her pink lunchbox. Shouting at her was stupid.

"I speak properly, and you love that I speak properly," Azula purrs, poking at Ty Lee's artificially tanned calf. She almost went for the thigh before catching herself.

"I'm not turned on by the King's English," Ty Lee mutters, but she does like that brief touching, painful nails or not.

"Your loss." Azula smirks and pretends she is not in love.

Mai wants to stab her own eyes out.

"I wouldn't say the _Saw_ movies are the best in the genre," Mai says, attempting to end the discussion of romance. "I would go for _Hostel_ as the sexiest."

Azula finishes swallowing and says, "I saw this one on Fearnet where they harvested these kids' organs on a train. It probably cannot count as pornog- _porn_ —Ty Lee—because they, uh, well, cut off more than one boy's arms and legs…"

"That sounds like a good one." It is high praise coming from Mai.

But Azula grimaces. "It wasn't."

"Then why did you watch it?" asks Mai.

"I had seen every single violent movie I could find and I needed to up my caliber. There is a point I reached in which nothing was disturbing enough for me, and I probably would have moved on to literal snuff films if I hadn't found Fearnet and other steady streams of gore," Azula says. She sounds like she is discussing pop music, not torture porn.

"Okay!" Ty Lee interrupts. "Let's, uh, talk about something else. I mean, it _is_ my dream to date a serial killer, and I'm super jealous of that girl marrying Charles Manson, but, like, I'm eating."

"If you want to date a serial killer," Azula says, "you can't be such a drama queen about gruesome deaths. What if he or she has you over for dinner and, you know, you find some dismembered limbs in the freezer?"

Ty Lee squints.

"I don't know. It's not like people think about the unsexy side of Ryan Gosling," she says.

Azula lifts Ty Lee's legs off of her lap and turns to face her. "Did you ever think that maybe a serial killer would not like you questioning everything he or she does? Because historically this little girl was adopted by this serial killer, and it was all cute and like a Hallmark movie, but then he chopped her up into pieces and buried her at the side of a road."

"I have to ask," Ty Lee whispers, despite being unsurprised by those statements. "Are you a serial killer?"

Azula smirks. "Depends on who's asking, of course."

"You two are gross." Mai sighs and rolls her eyes. Bleeding limbs are a more pleasant sight than those oblivious bedroom eyes. "Just kiss right now and get it out of your cutsey system."

"Hmm." Azula avoids looking at Ty Lee and vice versa. "Oh, right, my brother just broke up with his girlfriend. Well, she presumably broke up with him, because who _wouldn't_? But he did, and I think you have a chance with him again."

"I don't want to date your brother." _I want to date your father_.

"Well, he can't sit through a torture porn movie," Azula says smoothly, "but he can… probably do something worth talking about. I will give him the benefit of the doubt; perhaps he has a talent."

An idea strikes Mai like lightning. It is a terrible, terrible one, but it is an action point all the same. She thinks maybe she can make a move on Ozai without being blatant – the most important thought on her mind for weeks. It is a remarkable achievement to make Mai think about fucking someone certain for over a month.

"So, if I were to come over to your house, and ask for Zuko, he would maybe make out with me?" Mai asks nonchalantly.

"You go too fast. Sex on the first date fast," Ty Lee says through a mouthful of a Milky Way bar.

"If you came on to him," Azula admits, "even _he_ could not be pathetic enough to deny you. Poor boy should probably take what he can get."

"I'm coming over to your house tonight," Mai announces, snapping her lunchbox shut.

 _###_

 _13: kiss_

It is not a wise thing to do, but Mai has never called herself wise.

She looks at this boy who seems so _into_ her, and tries not to look at the man who she is into. Mai has led Zuko on for two hours before she manages to situate their faux romance in front of his father. Her plan is clichéd and crazy, but she leans forward while Zuko is still talking – flirting with her – and kisses him on the lips. It lasts for a fleeting second, and when she pulls away he kisses her again.

When that one breaks, she decides that she will not do that again today (or perhaps _any_ day).

Her boyfriend's father has left, and no longer can see what she is doing.

 _###_

 _14: drive_

Mai stands in front of her best friend's father and manages to ignore the heat.

"I kind of came home with Azula," she explains, her hands clasped behind her back, "and I'm staying at my aunt's. My parents locked me out because they don't trust me. I've intentionally destroyed too much of their property and drunk too much of their _fine_ liquor for them to trust me with a key."

He laughs at that. He has a scary laugh.

"Why do I let you near my daughter?" he demands.

"Do you want to know?" That sparks an uncomfortable silence. "I mean to be asking, can you maybe take me there?"

He doubts she notices the double entendre.

"I could do that," he replies.

"Thank you. I'm ready to go, if you are, I guess." Mai does not get tongue-tied. How is Mai tongue-tied.

They drive in silence. Ozai knows what he is about to do and it feels oddly _somber_. Fucking his daughter's best friend is not something he ever envisioned himself doing, and he knows that, despite his wealth, there could be repercussions. He can have any girl he wants for a night and she should not be on that list.

But he cannot deny that she is.

Mai reaches out and turns on the radio as the silence becomes agonizing. She wishes she had never asked for this. It makes her wonder if he is not as interested as she assumed.

While they drive past the water, he breaks the silence.

"I saw you kiss my son," he says, trying to get a feel for it.

"Yes, I did do that. Is there a problem with it?" Mai asks slowly.

The silence deafens. Mai watches his attention return to the road in front of them.

"No," he lies and Mai tries not to sigh. She knew it would be complicated and perhaps futile, but she hoped otherwise.

They drive for a minute longer before Mai cannot take the tension.

"I would be more than okay with kissing you," Mai says, startled by how easy that was to say.

He does not crash the car, which he considers to be impressive. She waits for his response, and wonders if there will even be one.

"I am married, and you are sixteen, and so that would be very inappropriate." He is still going to fuck her tonight; he knows he will, no matter what he says to himself.

"It's only a crime if you get caught," Mai says. "Not that we'd have sex or anything."

He pulls over at the first opportunity, because trying to focus while high schooler is hitting on you is probably more dangerous than driving drunk. They end up parked by the beach. Mai hates beaches, but she does like the solitude here.

"You have a point." They do not move. They do not say a word. "But you do seem more interested in my fuck-up son, who is at an appropriate marital status and age for you."

"Well, he plays guitar and that's good enough for me—"

"Such low standards."

"—but I don't really like him. Or else I wouldn't be here right now." Mai wishes this were less uncomfortable.

There is no sound but the wind and waves.

He takes the initiative yet again, as he begins to discover that he cannot take the initiative to do something other than talk to her.

"You were very forward a few minutes ago," he says.

"Yeah." She has no regrets.

They sit there a moment before she reaches to her white school blouse and fumbles with the buttons for a few seconds. She sets her hands down, because she feels like an idiot; she cannot even undress herself properly.

He moves to do it for her before realizes that he cannot do what he intended to. She is trembling, and he does not think she truly knows what she is asking for at the moment.

How could she?

"You shouldn't have been," he decides to say. It does hurt, but so do many wise choices.

Mai does not get how this went so wrong when he finishes taking her to her aunt's house, and she stands on the sidewalk, watching him drive away.

This is not as easy as she thought it would be.

 _###_


	4. Chapter 4

**_AN:_** _I was going to do 1sentence drabbles for the #MaizaiMonday prompts but I ended up doing 3sentence drabbles. I liked the cadence of it better._

 _###_

 _15: Desperate_

Mai is not desperate. Ozai is not desperate.

They just want each other very much.

 _###_

 _16: Cutthroat_

"You have wonderful potential for college," says the counselor who called Mai to her office. "You could get into an ivy league, if you wanted."

"I try not to think about it," replies Mai. "I don't really want to go to college."

It is a form of rebellion, but she feels pretty damned rebellious.

 _###_

 _17: Fable_

It is not realistic. Mai would call it a fairy tale, albeit a really fucked up one.

She still watches him and hates it.

 _###_

 _18: Inferno_

He is married. Ozai would call it a sham of a marriage, but he still has to be true to it for some reason.

He still watches her and hates it.

 _###_

 _19: Silence_

The dead quiet is uncomfortable as they stand in the front hall. Either Mai or Ozai _should_ leave, but they just keep standing and waiting for Azula.

"I'm asking Zuko out," awkwardly announces Mai, because she does not know anything else to say.

 _###_

 _20: Ensnared_

Mai sits inside of the movie theater with Zuko, and tries not to think about the fact that he just grabbed her hand, and forces herself to lean in and rest her head on his shoulder, and they inexplicably do not move from that position for the rest of the loud horror sequel.

"I'm really into you," says the ensnared son of the man Mai actually loves.

"You're not so bad yourself," she quietly, flatly replies.

 _###_

 _21: Huntress_

"Get what you want. Go for what you want and get it!" Ty Lee says brightly, talking about Zuko.

Mai agrees with her for once.

But that does not change facts.

 _###_

 _22: Darkness_

Mai and Zuko make out in the dark, and like it, but she pulls away when he reaches for her shirt.

"Yeah, no," she bluntly says, not giving a damn about his feelings. "I'm not into you enough to go that far."

He looks crestfallen but she does not care.


End file.
